Bring me to LIFE
by lethalenigma
Summary: Anna is saved. This could have actually happened in the movie! Includes some fluff last chapter. Constructive criticism is welcome. Last chapter is INSANELY corny, but it was requested.
1. The 12th stroke of midnight

The wolf slowly began to rise as Carl entered the room. His eyes completely focused on the monster that was once his closest friend, he did not even notice the needle sticking out of his abdomen, or the still princess lying in front of him. "God forgive me…" She said under his breath, tears filling his throat, before he began his charge towards Van Helsing. Suddenly, the wolf turned around, grabbed the stake, and roared in Carl's face. A few silent moments passed before both Carl and Gabriel looked down at the needle, the cure, sticking out of Van Helsing's torso.

Van Helsing let go of Carl, now able to recognize him for his friend, and not just prey. He pulled the needle out gingerly before looking to Anna Valerious, who was lying; eyes open but empty, on the bed in front of him. Tears began to fill his eyes even before Carl mumbled, stricken, "she's dead." Van Helsing bent over and picked her up, holding her limp body close while letting out his final howl as a wolf. His howl turned into the desperate cry of a man as his fur shed, and even that cry was deduced to sobs and whimpers, coming from one of the strongest men of history. He pressed her cold cheek against his warm bloody one, and his tears mixed with her skin. She was his equal. She was the one woman that could come up to his standards and challenge him, the one woman who he felt comfortable around, accepted. The one woman he ever had any interest in, and now she was dead. She was dead because of the monster he had become to save her family.

He was so overcome by his sadness that he didn't hear the Frankenstein monster, his new friend, come into the room. When he saw the great Van Helsing crying over the Princess' dead body, he let out a sigh. The Princess had shown him kindness, thanked him for saving her, something no one had ever done. Van Helsing had called him his friend, and had tried his best to help him escape from the bondage that he was in to bring Dracula's children to life. Carl, the young fryer, who was supposed to kill him, ended up saving him. Frankenstein owed them his life, and his friendship. And he knew what he must do…

"Some of the Dwergie are still alive." He growled. Carl spun around, staring at him incredulously. "Which means?" Van Helsing asking blankly, laying Anna down on the sofa. "Which means we can power the machine." Frankenstein continued.

Van Helsing was utterly confused, and it showed in his wolf like eyes. "I am the key to life. If we can power the machine, I can give her life." He motioned his head towards the dead princess. Van Helsing's jaw dropped slightly, and his eyebrows furrowed. "Would she… would she have wanted that?" Van Helsing asked, not to anyone in particular.  
"Yes!" Both Frankenstein and Van Helsing turned to Carl, taken by surprise by his confident statement. "Yes, she would have." He said again, a little more calmly. "Once, I ran into her in the castle. We began to speak of finding Dracula. She said that she hoped to live to see the days when he was vanquished, before going off to her family in heaven. She wanted to see the sea and- Uhm, to travel." He stated, as if he had read it in a book.

It only took that piece of information to clear Van Helsing's conscience. Except for one other thing… "Friend, would you be willing to do this? I don't want to put you through any more pain." He looked to the Frankenstein monster, who smiled (or what he would call his smile). "It would be far more painful to see two friends grieve over someone who they loved, and whom I could have saved."

Van Helsing nodded, a grin spreading across his face. "Well… let's go find some Dwergie."


	2. The final hour of daylight

**Author's note: Forgot to do all of this before, so here goes.  
Characters do not belong to me, but to the creators of the movie Van Helsing.  
Constructive criticism is welcome (that does NOT mean flaming).  
****Chapters will be completed and added as quickly as possible. ****Van Helsing and Gabriel are the same person, for those who have not seen the movie/do not remember that detail.  
****Will contain fluff, mostly between Anna x Gabriel. If you don't like it, don't read it.  
Enjoy **

* * *

"I got one! Ou look I got one!" Carl yelled as he ran down the hall way, pulling on a net that contained a small, writhing Dwergie. Van Helsing laughed at the smile of victory on Carl's face, raising an eyebrow and looking down at his own six Dwergie. "Hand him here, Carl." He said, amused, in his deep rumbling voice. "No!" Carl insisted, holding the net close to his chest, "I caught him!" Van Helsing hunched his shoulders, shaking his head in amusement as he pulled his own Dwergie into the large room with Doctor Frankenstein's machine. He through them into the center, being careful to keep them tied up, and proceeded to barricading all of the doors surrounding the room, making it impossible for them to escape.

Once all the entrances were closed, he untied the Dwergie, who had now given up any chance of escape and followed his orders to clean up the mess caused by Dracula and Van Helsing's fight, and to fix any broken pieces of the machine. As they were doing this, Carl was as fidgety as ever. He would constantly be whispering things such as: "What if it doesn't work?" "What if she comes back like a baby vampire?" "What if only part of her wakes up?" "What if there's another baby left that they didn't know about?"

Van Helsing could only laugh at all of his insecurities, and thank God that none of them seemed very plausible. If one of them had been, then his current state of excitement would be lost to grief for years to come. But he wouldn't think of that now, for Carl was now fussing over one of the Dwergie's jobs of fixing a broken lever, and he and the little creature seemed to be having a heated hand-argument, which was impossible not to laugh at.

The last few hours of daylight passed, and all the while Carl, Van Helsing, and the Dwergie were working on cleaning up the large hall, and the machine itself. Carl never took his eye off of his particular Dwergie, now named Vlads, and would double check the work of each one critically before moving along. Van Helsing, on the other hand, had been walking around the room for almost the entire time. For shot spurts of time, he would observe the minions work or laugh at Carl as he fussed over mistakes that weren't there, but mostly he was deep in thought. He had killed Dracula. He was the left hand of God. That meant he had to do God's biding for the rest of time… but what of Anna? A woman had never gotten in the way of his job with the order before, and she, being one who had aided him in it so much just days before, was now the largest barricade anyone could have ever created. He knew she would gladly consent to being a warrior for the order herself, but could he put her through such danger?

What is even his choice?

Of course it wasn't. Anna deserved as much respect as he did, and she was probably just as strong. She was incredible with weapons, and would not cower away. No, she would be able to face anything he could face. But some journeys would cause them to part for days, weeks, months, maybe even years… And what if his memory got swiped again? He didn't know if he had left a love behind those many years ago, when his memory was robbed of him and he was wandering aimlessly in the world. He couldn't leave Anna like that.

And then, a thought dawned on him.

Was she his to love? After all, all they had shared was one kiss. He killed her brother, he killed her… that must add up to a lot of anger and hatred… He shook himself mentally, putting a hand to his forehead and taking a deep breath. 'Don't think about it Gabriel' he told himself. 'It's her choice, thinking about it won't make it any more clear to you, damn it.'

"VAN HELSING!" Gabriel turned calmly towards the voice of his friend, whom he found lying on the floor, being poked and prodded by a number of Dwergie. "Van Helsing what are they doing?!" Carl pleaded, looking around incredulously. Gabriel's eyes widened in realisation and he let out a loud bellow, a laughter coming straight from his belly. It echoed through the hall, and caused the Dwergie to stop all that they were doing to stare at him. "What- make them stop! They are tickling me!" Carl demanded, trying to wriggle himself free. Van Helsing walked towards them, a smile playing on his lips, and he tugged his friend from the grasps of the Dwergie. "I suppose that's their way of telling you to let them do their job, Carl." He mused, brushing the dirt off of the young fryer's back roughly. Carl straightened himself, voicing a small grunt before looking around once more. "Do you think he's ready?" He asked. Van Helsing's smile faded as he took on a more serious demeanour.

"Why ask him?" A voice said from behind them. Carl jumped and spun around in surprise, while Gabriel turned around smoothly, recognising the voice of Frankenstein. "Are you well rested, friend?" Van Helsing asked, smiling warmly. Frankenstein nodded, and without any further word, he walked up the makeshift staircase that the Dwergie had built, up to the very top of the tower, where the harness was located. Van Helsing followed close behind, not saying anything out of respect of the creature in front of him, until they reached the top.

"We won't need to screw any bolts into you this time, just to strap you up." He explained as Frankenstein lowered himself into the 'seat'. Van Helsing watched as he strapped himself in, all but his feet, which Van Helsing did himself. "Thank you." He grumbled, before standing up to look at the monster lying in the seat in front of him. Frankenstein simply nodded, lowering his head and closing his eyes. Van Helsing took that as a cue to leave, and slowly walked down the steps to the machine, where Carl and the Dwergie were at the ready.


	3. The crack of the night storm

"Shit! Carl, the lever isn't working!" Gabriel roared as he tried to pull what seemed like the hundredth lever in a period of only 10 minutes. The lightning was going wild outside, and he needed to pull it down so that when it hit Frankenstein, the bolt would go through the wires to Anna. In other words… it had to be down 5 minutes ago.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Carl chanted, practically skipping over to Van Helsing, only to shift the lever a bit to the left and pull it down with ease. Gabriel crossed his arms over his burly chest in defeat. "Nice to be out of your books and around machinery, is it Carl?" He grumbled. Carl let a cocky grin spread across his boyish face, "The air here is thick with envy."  
Van Helsing grinned, but it was soon whipped off his face when he heard a deafening crack, and both he and Carl looked up at the harness that contained Frankenstein, which had just been hit with its first bolt of lightning. A wave of pure blue electricity went through the hall, and that was Van Helsing's cue to leave. "See you on the other side." He said to Carl, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Just make sure it works." Carl said, brushing the hand off of his shoulder. Van Helsing nodded before heading over to the door on the left side of the hall, locking it behind him once he was outside.

He quickly made his way to the large room where all of Dracula's pods used to be. Now, there lay a plush red sofa with a beautiful women lying upon it, wires attached to her pale body. He had moved the sofa there earlier on that morning, not wanting to move the wires, just in case there was some connection behind them all that required them to stay in that exact area. He walked over to Anna's still form and got on his needs, taking her hand in his. The blood was pulsing, just as the pods had pulsed when the first shock wave had hit them. For once, his memories of such things were clear, and he remembered this one well…

"_What are they?"  
"Offspring."  
"Oh my god…" Her thick Transylvanian accent trailed off in disgust as she continued to look around at the hundreds of eggs… pods around them, covered in slime and cobwebs.  
_"_A man with three gorgeous women for four hundred years?"  
"Of course… vampires are the walking dead, it only makes sense their children are born dead."  
"He's obviously trying to bring them to life…" Van Helsing ran his gloved fingers over the slimy wire, before looking into the forest of Dracula's offspring.  
"Ladies first." He suggested, receiving only a sarcastic looking Anna, one hand on her hip, looking him dead in the eye._

He smiled when he remembered that face she gave him. Such a stiff, courageous woman, and yet she could still find the time for humour and sarcasm. All of the sudden, his memories were interrupted by another crack, and the electrical sound of the blue wave coming towards them. It ran through their bodies, and he could feel the static in his hair. If it hadn't been too wet and greasy to move, it would be standing on end. She was breathing now, he chest rising and falling gracefully. He reached out his hand, gently pressing it against the left side of her chest plate.

A heartbeat.

Something those god forsaken vampires could never take away from her now. And with one more wave, those lids would open and she would be alive once more. Though he couldn't help but think that this was against her will… She was a Transylvanian princess, she had taught herself to see the brighter side of death, she wished to die naturally or in battle and she did not fear it. Was being reborn with a machine something that would please her, something she would not mind, or something that would hurt her pride? He was afraid of her reaction when she awoke, because he knew how happy he would be when she did… but would her reaction bring his happiness crashing to the depths of hell?

He stopped himself from thinking further, because he heard the final CRACK, and saw the light shinning off the blue ray coming from beneath the doors and between the cracks in the walls before it even entered the room. It swept over them swiftly, and all was frozen for just a moment. For just a moment he was staring at Anna, eyes wide, breathing faltered, hand on her chest. And she was lying there peacefully, breathing, living… and that one frozen moment was broken when a light moan came from her lips. He took in a shallow breath as she slowly opened her lids, and pushed herself up. She blinked the death away from her eyes and rested her hand on her forehead. 'How can I be alive?' she thought to herself. 'How can I be here when I just saw my family again, saw the lights of heaven part, and saw my life flash before my eyes? How?' It was then that she felt the pressure on her lap, and she looked down to see a hand lying there. Her head snapped to the side, only to find Van Helsing grinning up at her through his ruffled hair. Her mouth slightly agape, her eyes twinkled. 'Ah, he's why I'm here.'

"Welcome back." He said in his deep voice. A small smiled spread across her lips, but confusion was in her eyes. "Why am I here?" She asked him. Or more demanded of him.  
She knew it couldn't be good, since the grin on his face melted, and his eyes darkened. "We brought you back to life…" He began. "Back to life?" She said, somewhat louder than before. He bowed his head, "Mmm. With the Frankenstein monster. We used Dracula's machine… I'm sorry Anna." He said quietly, standing up and turning his back to her. The pieces clicked in her mind just then… they had done what Dracula had done to resurrect his children to her. His machine had been used to bring her back to life. That evil being's machine. That vermin's creation…

Not only was it vile and unheard of… but the best form of revenge she could have taken.

Van Helsing stood still when he heard the clunk of her heels against the stone floor, and continued to remain still when she walked in front of him, turning to face him. His eyes passed over her shoulder, not wanting to meet whatever it was in her eyes.

"You are sorry for killing Dracula." She stated.

His eyes furrowed in confusion as he looked down into her eyes, which were filled with amusement. "No…" He said uncertainly.  
"You are sorry for saving my family from a fate of forever in purgatory, including me as well?" She asked him, with that same glint of amusement.

"Not quite." He said, still confused.  
"You are sorry for bringing me back with the machine that my enemy built to destroy my people, and the people of the world, then?" She challenged.  
His eyebrows were on the verge of connecting because they were so close together, and there was confusion and sorrow in Van Helsing's eyes.  
"Anna, I'm sorry for killing you. And I am sorry for bringing you back unnaturally with this machine if it was against your will."  
He uncrosses his arms and took in a deep breath, feeling like a large weight had just lifted off of his shoulders. He expected many reactions at this moment: a tantrum, a punch, a sword through his gut. But he got what he didn't even think of expecting. He got a smile and a chuckle.  
"Mr. Van Helsing, you killed me. I got to see my family, I got to see their smiling faces and see them enter heaven. And then, you brought me back with the machine that my enemy worked so hard to work to destroy me. But you transformed its purpose into saving me, bringing me back to life after I had been destroyed. And for that… you deserve a drink." Her lips were pulled into the same little smirk that she had the first day she said that to him, and he could only stand there, eyes firm, body prepared for a fight, because he didn't know what to do with this kind reaction. But in a few moments, he figured it out…

He took one step towards her, slowly. Anna continued to watch him in amusement, seeing the relief and the confusion and the indecision run through his eyes. When she saw certainty set in, she did not know what to expect. He took her by surprise when he reached out his hands, grabbed her by the back of her head and kissed her roughly, pushing his lips against hers and sliding his tongue into her mouth. She let out a contented sigh as she wrapped her own arms around his broad shoulders, grabbing onto them for all she was worth. She had experience everything in her lifetime, except for this- she had experienced family, friendship, battle; which was something a woman rarely experienced, pain, happiness, intelligence… but she had never experienced love until now. She had even seen her family enter heaven before she had thoughts about living with one person for the rest of her life. She was glad of it.

The kiss went from rough to smooth, from demanding to giving. His grip on the back of her neck softened and he ran his fingers up and down it, sending tingles to the small of her back. She gave him a small peck on the lips before pulling back, smiling up at him and running her hands through his hair.

A few moments later, Carl rushed through the door with Frankenstein, and smirked mischievously at the couple that were now standing in each other's arms in the center of the room. "I presume it worked." He chided, straightening his back. "Indeed it did." Van Helsing replied, grinning. "And I presume the lady wouldn't mind coming back with us to Rome, and work with the order, since there is no longer any adventure here?" Carl asked, still with an amused tone but this time, the question was far more serious. Anna looked up at Gabriel, who looked down at her uncertainly. A smile slowly spread across her lips, and she turned to Carl and said: "I'd love to."


	4. And for the rest of eternity

"Anna?! Anna is that you?"  
Van Helsing walked frantically towards the front door of the house, which had been left ajar by whoever had just entered. He heard shuffling from the living room, which he ran to automatically, shutting the door with one hand and pulling a scythe out of its sheath on the wall with the other. He stood at the entrance of the living room, looking around wildly, breath slow. Before he could take a step into the furnished room, he felt a cold blade come into contact with his neck. "Mr. Van Helsing, you stole my job."  
Gabriel smiled at her thick Transylvanian accent, which she managed to keep intact by conversing with other Transylvanian gypsies in Rome. "And for that, you are to be puni- AH!" Anna gasped as Van Helsing spun around abruptly, swooped her into his arms and kissed her happily. "I haven't seen you for a week and this is how you greet me?" He growled, taking the sword out of her hand and dangling it in front of her face.

Anna scoffed, "And whose fault is that! You're the one who wanted to go hunting warlocks, of whom I wanted to hunt, without my consent!" He kissed her again before she could say anything else; knowing she would, indeed, punish him for this later. A low cough came from the back of the room, and Gabriel spun around, placing Anna behind him. When he saw Carl's amused smile in front of him, he straightened his back and laughed. "Good evening Carl! What brings you here?" He asked his friend. "Well, if I could have a moment in your love nest. I'd like to update you on how your village in Transylvania is doing." He teased. Anna eyes lit up at the topic of her people, and she sat down on a couch, listening intently. Van Helsing stayed in the door frame, leaning on the wall.

"Frankenstein is doing a terrific job at running it, apparently. They are trading with their fellow villages now, and the Frankenstein castle is being used as a dance hall. There was one werewolf attack last month, as you know, because you handled it wonderfully." He motioned his head to Anna, and Van Helsing's jaw dropped. "Other than that one attack, everything is running smoothly, and both of you are to be at the order tomorrow to discuss next month's killings. Good day!" He ended cheerfully, chuckling at the surprised look on Van Helsing's face as he walked out the front door.

"You- you told me it was just a wolf. You told me you were going to a friend's wedding!" Gabriel said, stunned. Anna stood up and walked towards him, placing a hand on his chest. "You really can't expect me to tell you about every one of my adventures. You might steal them all."

Van Helsing smirked down at her lovingly before kissing her passionately, and enfolding her in his large arms. The only time that he stopped kissing her in the next hour or so was for him to whisper in her ear: "Then perhaps I shouldn't tell you of the vampire hunting that is taking place next week."


End file.
